Most Shared

Design Miami/ 2009

Fendi and the organizers of Design Miami/, the renowned design-art fair, are at it again. After collaborating on the production of Craft Punk during the Milan furniture fair in April, which saw cutting-edge product designers feverishly churning out inventive new creations made with Fendi materials, the two organizations have reunited for a new project. This time, they commissioned London-based electronics wizard Moritz Waldemeyer and L.A.-based band OK Go to come up with a special design performance. Waldemeyer is already famous for automating everything from robotic dresses for fashion designer Hussein Chalayan to illuminated chandeliers that display text messages for architect Ron Arad, and OK Go is best known for its viral Internet rock videos, so it’s hardly a surprise that the result is unabashedly high-tech. Their collaborative creation involves nothing less than Gibson guitars clad in Fendi white leather and illuminated fur, with headstocks sprouting laser beams (left). In live performances running every day at Design Miami/, now through December 5, OK Go will rock out while using the lasers to create digital visualizations of the music. “We mounted the lasers on the guitars like they’re an extension of the strings, and they shoot out of the heads of the guitars,” explains Waldemeyer. “The guys, when they’re playing, can use the lasers almost like paintbrushes.” By pointing the guitars at a large projection screen, the band can create images, he says—“graphic design that’s related to the music being played.” The point, says Waldemeyer, is to “bring rock ’n’ roll together with Fendi’s really old tradition of beautiful handcrafted design.” He and Silvia Fendi conceived the coverings for the instruments together in Rome, where artisans at Palazzo Fendi used “materials from their accessory range to pimp the guitars” by hand. After Design Miami/, OK Go will take the guitars on tour. If you’re in Miami for the fair, there are other intriguing showcases to check out as well. Dutch designer Maarten Baas, who has been named Designer of the Year, was given carte blanche to create an installation that includes the latest edition of “Real Time,” a series of video-based clocks that tell time through human movement. For Swarovski Crystal Palace, L.A.-based architect Greg Lynn has developed billowing seven-foot-high carbon-fiber sails that suspend 1.5 million crystals at the entrance to the Designers’ Lounge. The fair’s new Design On/Site section also offers a series of small solo exhibitions from designers specializing in limited-edition work. This year’s edition of Design Miami/ offers plenty of proof that, regardless of whether or not collectors are buying, design-art creativity is alive and well.